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rtfm
Well-Known Member
Sounds exciting. The downside of this is that its going to cost more than either CF or steel. It's the way of the world I guess...
Somebody tried it at home, with interesting results:
Tiger Tim
Well-Known Member
That’s neat. While obviously not quite the same, the root ends of MT propeller blades go through a process of being compressed to what they call a plasticized state and I believe also impregnated with some sort of resin down to a cellular level.
Props have been made of compreg almost for a century.
This principle of compressing the wood is the same principle as forging steel.
Southern Yellow Pine, for example, is stronger than steel, has a better fire rating than steel, and just looks better than steel.
To go even further, engineered wood such as glue laminated beams made from dimensional lumber is extremely strong. Each piece of lumber is chosen for the glue lamination lay up by the structure of its grain and the tightness of its growth rings and the rings camber. Each section of lumber is then finger jointed and glued as it is in between each layup.
The next step is to send the entire layup or beam through a high pressure and heat curing / joining machine. The end product is a ridiculously strong.
I have often thought about taking aircraft grade spruce and or douglas fir and applying the same principle for creating a super strong, lightweight spar.
Of course their are other products considered to be engineered wood such as plywood and OSB. I would never use OSB for any aerospace application but we commonly use plied, aircraft grade wood for wing skins which is very strong if applied correctly.
-Yellowhammer
Southern Yellow Pine, for example, is stronger than steel, has a better fire rating than steel, and just looks better than steel.
To go even further, engineered wood such as glue laminated beams made from dimensional lumber is extremely strong. Each piece of lumber is chosen for the glue lamination lay up by the structure of its grain and the tightness of its growth rings and the rings camber. Each section of lumber is then finger jointed and glued as it is in between each layup.
The next step is to send the entire layup or beam through a high pressure and heat curing / joining machine. The end product is a ridiculously strong.
I have often thought about taking aircraft grade spruce and or douglas fir and applying the same principle for creating a super strong, lightweight spar.
Of course their are other products considered to be engineered wood such as plywood and OSB. I would never use OSB for any aerospace application but we commonly use plied, aircraft grade wood for wing skins which is very strong if applied correctly.
-Yellowhammer
The interesting questions are how dense, how machinable, how rot resistant, and how expensive?
And:
It is compressed today, and the remaining lignin is keeping it compressed. Today. In 10 years, through hundreds of thermal and moisture cycles?
Natural wood is a wonderful material, but it took a long time to find how to reliably create structures with it that are light, strong, and durable.
This all sounds a lot like a different way to get Rayon in one big lump?
You wrote
BJC
I didn't find that information.
BJC
The article said 1/6 the weight of steel so 1300 kg per m3 .
Spruce is 450 so nearly 3 times as heavy
Missed that. Thank you. Another point of reference - Aluminum is 2600 kg/M3 or thereabouts.
Aviator168
Well-Known Member
Still not weldable.
Jimstix
Well-Known Member
... and the prices for lumber are approaching those for CF in a hurry, yikes! The other issue is quality control without industrial-scale production.
Aviator168
Well-Known Member
When lumber becomes too strong, is it going to be as brittle as CF?
